*This follows the final episode of Downton Abbey (6x08) two weeks after Mary and Henry's wedding. It is a work of fiction.*
"My darling Sybbie," Tom said as his daughter was running towards him, followed by George. He was utterly and completely content just watching them.
"Daddy, daddy," Sybbie started screaming in her sweet high voice when Tom grabbed her and lifted her onto his shoulders. Her laugh was contagious and she clearly was enjoying being up there on his broad shoulders.
George was at his feet, laughing and waving to Sybbie. "I want to be up in the sky, too." He was an image of his father, Matthew.
Tom winked at the little George. After several minutes of Tom walking around beneath trees to see if Sybbie could touch any branches being on her dad's shoulders, he put her down again. He placed a kiss on her forehead before she ran off once again, catching butterflies. She was giggling.
"Come on, George, now it is your turn, if you want."
George's smile could not have been any bigger as Tom lifted him far up into the sky. But as soon as George was on his shoulders, he started yelling, "Mummy, mummy!" He pointed back to the house where Mary just exited the car, walking directly inside without hearing her son's voice from quite far away.
Tom squeezed his eyes together when he put the little boy down who immediately ran after Sybbie. "Sybbie, George, let's go inside," he told them. The two children rushed back and followed Tom back to Downton.
After he brought the two kids back to the nursery, he went downstairs to Carson. "Carson, do you know where Lady Mary is?"
"She withdrew to the sitting room, Mr Branson," Carson replied kindly with his deep voice.
"Thank you," Tom nodded, leaving towards the sitting room.
He entered the room and immediately found Mary standing by the window. As always she looked exquisite in her dark purple dress and hat. Mary was the epitome of elegance and grace, indeed. She mastered the art of elegant simplicity like Henry called it.
She didn't notice his arrival and continued staring out of the window. Tom opened his mouth to speak, but exactly then Mary started quietly talking to herself, "maybe I do not deserve better."
Tom frowned. What was she talking about? He cleared his throat to get her attention. Swiftly Mary turned around. Her eyes widened in shock at his sight and Tom thought to have seen tears in her eyes, but that couldn't be true. Mary hardly ever cried or teared up. She was usually guarded.
"Is everything alright?" He took a step forward.
A moment of silence followed. Mary seemed to collect herself again, taking a deep breath and putting on that emotionless though elegant facial expression that everybody knew so well from her.
"Tom, everything is perfectly fine. How could it not be?" She almost sounded offended and aloof. Her eyes didn't meet his though. "Shouldn't you be out managing the estate?"
He briefly grinned. "I was out with Sybbie and George."
She nodded. "Very well then." There was a short hesitation before she continued. "Excuse me, I'll go upstairs and change." It was as if Mary could not stand being in the same room as Tom.
"Hold on, Mary." Tom grabbed her thin wrist as she passed him. He pulled her back. "We haven't really talked since you came back from your honeymoon with Henry. You avoid me at all times. Even at all the dinners you don't seem to dare to look my direction, not to mention your lacking presence at our office for running the estate."
She rolled her eyes before she spoke. "I am very busy, Tom. You can't expect me to babysit you. I have better things to do than that."
There she was. The Mary that felt superior to everybody, the Mary that was a bully, the Mary that was not happy.
Tom bristled at her hostility. "Don't do that with me. You are better than that!"
"Better than what? Are you going to call me a bully once more?" she challenged him with a firm, collected and arrogant voice.
"Look at me," Tom demanded, holding back his anger as well as possible. "I will call you out for being a bully if it comes to that. Even though I know you are not and it's just acts of desperation and jealousy. Are you not happy now?"
And for the first time since a while, she looked him straight into his eyes. Her face was turned towards his and he was struck by her beauty like always. Her bobbed dark brown hair almost seemed black in the light and contrasted wonderfully with her porcelain skin. However, there was something in her eyes that was different. People usually said they were as cold as her heart, but Tom saw that coldness more as a protective barrier between the outside world and her soul. Now though, as Tom looked her in the eyes, there was something missing. The shine and light that he normally noticed beneath the barrier was gone; the shine that hinted at the warmth she reserved only for her dearest and the light that hinted at her vulnerability and love she was so good at hiding. Her beauty seemed to have lost the most important feature, he thought to himself.
"I married the man you all think is so right and perfect for me. How could I not be happy? I shall be perfectly happy. Now if you excuse me, I'll retire to my room. Good day, Tom." In her voice resonated reserve and aloofness and with that said, Mary wrested herself free from Tom's grip.
Before he could reply, she was out of the room and he could hear her going upstairs. Left was a confused Tom.
* A little introduction. I hope you liked it at least a bit.*